Yahoo News AHS: Cult previews Evan Peters as Charles Manson
American Horror Story: Cult's co-creator Ryan Murphy promised this season would feature Evan Peters's most ambitious performance yet, and a new first-look photo is yet more proof of his claim.
Throughout the franchise's seventh season, Peters has portrayed the would-be cult leader Kai Anderson as his crusade to bring anarchy to a fictional Michigan town has grown increasingly violent.
However, Murphy and company are interested in exploring the cult of personality around figures like Donald Trump by delving back into our history in having Peters also play real cult figures like Andy Warhol and now Charles Manson.
Murphy is teasing Peters's transformation into the guru convicted of masterminding the brutal Manson family murders of the 1960s with a first-look photo on Instagram:
Evan Peters or Charles Manson?
A post shared by Ryan Murphy (@mrrpmurphy) on Oct 19, 2017 at 1:55pm PDT
Upcoming episodes will include Peters portraying Jim Jones - the murderous People's Temple leader behind the mass murder at Jonestown - and the Branch Davidians' David Koresh, who led his people into the deadly siege at Waco in 1993.
Just before the launch of American Horror Story: Cult, Ryan Murphy admitted to Digital Spy that he'd been wanting to incorporate Charles Manson into the franchise for "a long time".
"[Cult leaders] really are idiots," he explained, "but for some reason in the culture at that time there was something going on that people were so disenfranchised that they were, like, 'Yeah, I'm going to follow you, Charles Manson, and I'm going to do whatever you say'."
The writer went on to say: "It really is about the rise of a cult of personality that can rise in a divided society."
American Horror Story: Cult airs on FX in the US and on FOX in the UK.
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